Ministering women have long laboured in our infirmaries for the benefit of the sick, carrying on their works of mercy side by side with men. “The lay sisters shall observe what we have above ordained to be observed by the brethren, as far as befits their sex,” decreed Archbishop Gray for St. John’s, Nottingham (1241). One of the men, corresponding to the monastic _infirmarer_, was responsible for the sick ward; thus a brother of Northallerton held the office of _procurator infirmorum in lectulis_, whilst two sisters watched by the sick, especially at night, and a third attended to household affairs. At Bridgwater, women “not of gentle birth but still fit for the purpose” assisted in nursing; they lodged in a chamber adjoining the infirmary and were to be always careful and ready both by night [p154] and day to help the sick and to minister to them in all things. The work of women among the sick developed further during the fifteenth century; they evidently took a prominent part in the management of the larger infirmaries. A lady, corresponding perhaps to the matron of to-day, was in authority at York. By a will of 1416, money was bequeathed for distribution among the helpers and inmates of St. Leonard’s at the discretion of Alice _materfamilias_. Long before (1276) the officers had included not only a brother called Gamel _de Firmaria_, but a sister named Ann _medica_;[97] and in 1385 the principal sister was known as Matilda _la hus-wyf_.[98] In some institutions there were already distinct ranks among nursing women. The pious poet Gower remembers in his will (1408) the staff and patients of four London hospitals; he leaves sums of money not only to the master and priests of St. Thomas’, Southwark, but “to every sister professed” and “to each of them who is a nurse of the sick.” Woman’s sphere in hospital life was confined to work by the bedside and domestic duties. Occasionally they were found to undertake what was not fitting. The prior of Christchurch, Canterbury, made a visitation of the daughter-hospital of St. James, Thanington, after which he issued a deed of reformation (1414). A curious clause occurs in these statutes:— “We command that no one of the sisters . . . or any other woman soever while divine service is being celebrated in the chapel should stand or sit in any way round or near the altars or should presume to serve the priests celebrating the [p155] divine offices or saying the canonical hours, since, according to the first foundation of the said hospital its chaplains or priests ought to have a clerk who ought to officiate in the aforesaid matters.”